Dongshi District 3.12

Dongshi District is a suburban district in eastern Taichung, Republic of China (Taiwan). It is the third largest district in Taichung City after Heping District and Taiping District. A majority of the residents are of Hakka ethnicity, making it an enclave in an otherwise non-Hakka county. Its Hakka dialect is very distinct compared to the dialects of other counties.Buildings in Dongshi were severely damaged by Chi-Chi earthquake in 1999.Dongshi is situated on a narrow, north-south oriented plain, flanked by the Da Jia River to the west and a mountain ridge to the east. It is this sense of being pressed up against that ridge, at the easternmost edge of the large west-central plain, that gives the town its name. Its elevation ranges from about 330 meters along the Dajia River to 1201 meters in the foothills of the Central Mountain Range.The township is bounded by (clockwise from the north) Zhuolan Township (Miaoli County), Heping Rural Township, Xinshe Rural Township, Shigang Rural Township, Fengyuan City, Houli Rural Township, and Sanyi Rural Township (Miaoli County).